


The Trouble With Matchmaking

by lovevalley45



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Powers, F/M, First Dates, Matchmaking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-30
Updated: 2019-06-30
Packaged: 2020-05-31 11:33:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19425139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovevalley45/pseuds/lovevalley45
Summary: As much as Zari can deny it's a date, it's definitely a date.





	The Trouble With Matchmaking

**Author's Note:**

> this is for spoonietimelordy's prompt 'they go to a restaurant, none of them know if it's a date' a month l8r bc i kept getting distracted but i've finally finished it! 
> 
> enjoy or don't enjoy i can't tell u what to do

Sometimes, Zari wonders if it’d just be easier to live alone. 

This is one of those times.

She’s just trying to mind her own business and play  _ Breath of the Wild _ when her roommate Charlie announces, “You need to get laid.”

Zari pauses her game. “What?”

Mona walks into their apartment and oh my God, it’s like a damn ambush when she joins her on the couch. How did she even get in?

Before she can ask, Mona announces, “We know you like Nate.” 

Zari has to take a moment to fully comprehend what’s happening, before she finally asks, “What are you talking about?”

Charlie climbs over the couch to sit on her other side. “Z, cut the bullshit. No one stays at someone’s house for a week after their dad dies because they’re besties or whatever.”

Zari sighs. “Fine, so what if I do like him?” She can’t believe they’re seriously having this conversation, when she could be doing anything better. Like playing her game. 

Mona grins. “Well, we have a plan to get you two together.” She spread her hands in front of her as if summoning an imaginary rainbow. “I’m calling it ‘Operation Natari’.”

Suddenly, she doesn’t feel like playing  _ Breath of the Wild _ . “You know what? I’m leaving.” She gets up and goes her room, locking the door so she can have just a bit of privacy for once.

“I thought we weren’t going to tell her about the plan.”

“I got excited!”

On the other side of the door, Zari groans.

She’s tried her hardest to erase the conversation from her mind by the next week, as she and Nate are talking during their morning break. He’s leaning against her desk as they joke about the Bureau’s shitty coffee machine. 

Everything seems to be going fine (even if it’s slightly awkward and neither of them will admit it) when Nate asks, “Hey, are you free tonight?”

Zari nods, taking a sip of her coffee. “Sure.” She’s expecting a suggestion to come over and watch some stupid 90s movie, not-

“There’s this new Italian place that just opened nearby, if you want to check it out. Some place called Il Boschetto.”

She chokes on her coffee and a few desks away, Mona looks over at where she’s dying. Zari composes herself, coughing slightly as she answers. “Okay?”

Nate clears his throat. “I mean, we could do something else, or-” 

“It’s fine, I just- Yeah, sounds great.”

He smiles. “Cool. I, uh, should get back to work. I’ll text.” She watches him walk back over to his desk before turning back to her own computer, trying to distract herself.

“Did he just ask you out on a date?” 

Zari turns around to see Mona behind her. “Seriously, I need to put a bell on you or something.” She sighs. “We’re just going out to dinner.”

“Sounded like a date to me,” Mona says, shrugging. 

“Don’t you have things to do?” Zari asks. 

“I’ll come over and help you pick out an outfit before you go.” Mona seems excited about it, which fills her with a feeling of dread that she can’t quite name. But if Zari says no, that won’t be the end of the conversation.

“Sure, whatever,” she says, pinching the bridge of her nose. God, it’s only 10 AM. What the fuck?

Mona grins as she pats Zari’s shoulder. “See you later!”

She resists the urge to bang her head on her desk and goes back to work, wondering when this became her life.

That night, Zari lets Mona pick out an outfit for her to wear as Charlie watches with a bowl of popcorn on hand. She could have stopped this from happening. She could lied about a family dinner, or literally anything, but no. 

“Seriously, do neither of you have a life?” Zari asks as Mona is rummaging through her closet. She turns to Charlie, sitting on her bed, feet tucked under her (with her boots still on, wonderful). “I thought you and your band had a concert tomorrow.” 

“Oh, this is way more entertaining,” Charlie says, grinning widely. She is way too happy about this, which makes this whole debacle even worse. 

Zari steals a piece of popcorn and Mona bursts out of the closet. “Try this on.”

Mona hands her a grey blouse that she must have bought at least two years ago and a pair of black jeans. A lot tamer than she’d thought Mona would put together, but she shrugs. She shouldn’t tempt fate right now, not when her friends have decided that playing matchmaker is a great hobby. “You two, get out of my room while I change.”

Charlie complains that they literally live together, but they both leave.

The blouse is a little more revealing than she remembered, but the outfit actually isn’t too bad. Not too nice, but not too casual. She touches up her eyeliner before heading out of her room.

Mona grins when she sees her. “You look great!” she says as Charlie wolf whistles.

Zari crosses her arms. “Yeah, I look hot, of course I do. Are we done?”

“What about hair and makeup?” Mona asks. 

“I’m already wearing makeup. Besides, you said you were going to help me pick out an outfit, not give me a makeover,” Zari says. She grabs her jacket off of the chair she threw it on and puts it on. “Nate’s going to be here any minute.”

“Wait.” Charlie gets up and tosses her a condom. “Use protection.”

“What? I’m not going to need this,” Zari says, giving the condom back to Charlie.

“Hey, no matter who you’re with, it’s important to be safe.” She gives the condom back to Zari, pressing it into her hand. 

“Safe sex is always the key,” Mona agrees, nodding.

There is a lot of things that Zari has begrudgingly tolerated today, but this is the line she’s drawing tonight. “If I take the condom, will you both shut up?” The two of them nod and she sighs as she slips the condom into her pocket. “Why did I agree to this again?”

“Because you won’t admit that you have a thing for Nate?” Charlie says.

“I was asking about why I let you two get so involved in this,” Zari retorts back, grabbing her stuff. 

“Trust us, Z. We know what we’re doing,” Mona replies, sharing a look with Charlie. It’s frustratingly unreadable, so Zari focuses on putting her boots on.

The doorbell rings at that moment, and Mona and Charlie rush to open it. She regrets not just meeting Nate at the restaurant as they both open the door. 

“Hey, Nate,” Mona says, and even with her back to her, Zari just knows she’s gotta be grinning like a kid who ate a whole bag of sugar. 

“Yo. Where’s Z?” 

She walks to the door, gently shoving both of them out of the way. “Hey,” she says.

He looks good. That’s the first thing her mind processes. He’s wearing an army green sweater rolled up to show off his forearms, his  _ very _ distracting forearms. Shit. “Hi. You look nice,” Nate says. The shade also brings out his eyes, she notes. The suits he wears at the Bureau look good, but she’s into the sweater. Wait, fuck, she has to respond-

“You too.” Silently, she prays that her stupid comment will not ruin this night. Or any stupid comment. Or that she could just turn around and-

While she’s busy rehashing every poor life decision that’s led her to this moment, Charlie practically pushes her out of the apartment. “Have fun, you two!” 

Zari resists the urge to roll her eyes as she steps into the hall - making sure that she’s not all up in Nate’s face. Guess she technically couldn’t complain, given that she did shove both her and Mona just a minute ago. “Thanks, Charlie. Don’t destroy the house while I’m gone.”

“No promises.” Charlie smiles and over her shoulder, Mona flashes a similarly mischievous grin. “Bye.”

The door slams, and she can hear the lock turn. No going back now.

“I thought it was just you and Charlie,” Nate says as they start to walk to the elevator. 

“It is. Mona has just decided meddling in my life is the best way to spend her time, apparently.”

“You could always pull the Nora card,” he jokes. 

The dramatic irony is not lost on Zari - while Mona is bothering her about her love life, she’s also pretending that she and Nora don’t have something going on. “Noted.” She pushes the button for the elevator, waiting for it to make the slow climb up.

“I think you’re really going to like this place,” Nate says. “Actually, Sara recommended it to me.”

“Huh.” The elevator doors open. “That’s nice.” They get onto the elevator, and Nate takes out his phone to call an Uber. While he’s busy doing that, Zari checks her lipstick. 

She doesn’t know why she’s suddenly so nervous. It’s just a casual dinner with one of her best friends, except the more time passes, the more it feels like a date. At least he didn’t show up with flowers. Or chocolate, but she could never pass up chocolate. 

The elevator stops and opens up in the lobby. “The Uber should be here in a few minutes,” Nate says as they walk outside. Even though it’s nearly spring, she’s happy she brought her jacket as they wait. 

Next to her, Nate tucks his hands in his pockets, bouncing on his heels. It shouldn’t feel this awkward (even if everything between the two of them has felt a bit awkward these past few weeks).

“So, Il Boschetto?” she says, trying to break the silence. “What does that mean?” She thinks of a thousand better things she could have said, but it’s too late now.

“What?” he asks.

Zari laughs - an awkward laugh, shit - before saying, “I thought you knew Italian.”

He nods his head, smiling. “Yeah. It means ‘grove’.” Great. It seems like neither of them really know what they were doing. This was going great.

Instead of saying any of that, she only says one word. “Cool.”

The Uber pulls up, and she feels herself relax. Their driver is chatty with Nate, but she’s more than happy to listen to them talk about how shitty DC traffic is. Which they get stuck in, because of course they do. 

Mona texts, “ _ You got this! _ ” Zari puts her phone on silent and looks out the window as they crawl to the restaurant.

When they finally arrive at Il Boschetto, she’s struck by how casual it is. It’s not some super fancy place, but it’s nice enough that neither of them look out of place as they walk inside.

It’s not too crowded, so they get seated fairly quickly. The small table means that there’s not any other place for Zari to look but at Nate. Instead, they both look over their menus to avoid conversation.

“They’ve got a lot of pasta,” he says, and she realizes they’re both fucked if they don’t acknowledge what this is.

“So, is this a date or what?” Zari says, putting her menu down.

Before Nate can answer, the waiter comes by to ask them if they want anything to drink. He orders a glass of wine, while she just asks for a water. The waiter seems unaware what he interrupted, but he leaves quickly enough.

“I mean, if you want, it can be a date,” Nate replies. 

“I’d like that,” she says, and God, it feels good to accept it for what it is. A date.

He smiles and goes back to his menu. There really is a lot of variety, she realizes, looking at her own menu. Better than times when it seems like there’s barely any choices.

On instinct, she flips over to the other side. A nice dessert menu too, she notes. That’s always nice.

“So, do you want to get an appetizer?” he asks.

“I mean, you can’t pass up garlic bread,” Zari replies, looking up from her menu. “What do you think you’re gonna get?”

He shrugs. “Still deciding.”

“Hm.”

The waiter comes by to bring them their drinks and take their order, leaving them to make conversation about anything else. 

Zari sips at her water, before smiling. “So… are you going to Sara and Ava’s engagement party this weekend?”

“Yeah. About time, right?” Nate says. He takes a drink of his wine before continuing. “I’ve known you for years, why does this feel so weird?” 

She sighs. “I don’t know,” she says with a chuckle. “Seriously. Mona and Charlie were making such a big deal out of it-”

“So was Sara!” His eyes widened. “Oh my God, they were trying to set us up.”

“Oh my God.” Zari laughs. “At least she was more subtle about it. Mona literally admitted they had a plan to set us up.”

“Really?” Nate asks. “Sara suggested this place, helped me pick out this sweater-” The baffled expression on his face nearly makes her crack up as everything clicks into place.

“Charlie just told me I needed to get laid,” she admits. “Like, in the middle of me playing  _ Breath of the Wild _ , just starts talking about my sex life.”

This time, he’s the one who almost loses it, and suddenly this date doesn’t seem as daunting. The waiter drops off their garlic bread, giving them a weird look as Nate tries to compose himself. “Ava called me into her office to give me the forms for a romantic relationship in the workplace. No context, just gave me two sets and winked before leaving.”

“Oh, God.” Zari wipes at her eyes, hoping she’s not messing up her eyeliner. “I can’t believe half of our friends were conspiring to get us together.”

Nate exhales, still smiling as he grabs a piece of garlic bread. “I know. But I have to say, as far as first dates go, they planned it well.”

“At least they put the effort in there.”

The cloud of awkwardness seems to lift as they go from their friends’ matchmaking attempts to talking about the latest workplace gossip and movies that Nate is definitely going to force Zari to watch. It’s nice, easy to joke about these things as they eat some admittingly amazing garlic bread until their food comes.

The pasta is stellar too, and she thinks of writing Sara a thank you card for knowing that food is the way to her heart.

“Just so you know, I came for the pasta,” Zari jokes, taking a bite of her fettuccine. “You’re going to be hard-pressed to one-up this.”

“Are you saying there’s going to be a second date, then?” Nate asks.

Under the table, she kicks him lightly, but she smiles. She’s happy that she brought gum. And that Charlie forced that condom on her before she left.

“Will you two be getting dessert tonight?” the waiter asks when he comes by. 

He looks over at her with a smile, before saying, “Just the check, thanks.”

“Two checks, please. Thanks.” As the waiter leaves them alone, she pushes her empty plate away from her. “You have something else in mind for dessert, then?”

Nate winks. “I might have thought ahead. Just a little.”

“Oh, forward. I like it.” The waiter gives them their checks, and Zari winces as she checks her total. “Next time, we’re just getting take-out.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” he says with a nod. 

**Author's Note:**

> hey if u liked this leave a kudo or maybe a comment! seriously i have two more prompts to answer and finally i can write my stupid AUs without being a procrastinator
> 
> the next thing i post will probably be my izombie au with my favorite trio like. mona, charlie, and zari are all very fun characters and i love writing them together
> 
> by the way can you fucking believe that nate heywood canonically can speak six languages and he doesn't even know spanish? in this economy? unrealistic.


End file.
